1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera apparatus for, and an image processing method of, creating a color image and a detection image based on emitted light.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-145386 (Patent Document 1) proposes an image taking apparatus for outputting a color image and a range image based on emitted infrared light by use of a single image taking unit. According to Patent Document 1, the image taking unit has a red (R) filter, a green (G) filter, a blue (B) filter, a filter IR1 or a filter IR2 for each of the pixels, where the filters IR1, IR2 have mutually-different frequency responses in the infrared region. The image taking apparatus proposed by Patent Document 1 generates the range image by: making a light projector emit light in a wavelength region which is transmitted through the filter IR2; comparing the amount of light received by the pixels in the filter IR1 with the amount of light received by the pixels in the filter IR2; and extracting the components of the emitted light. The pixels sensitive to the three primary colors are used to create the color image.